Part 143: Episode CXXXVII: Post Game

Episode CXXXVII: Post Game


New Music: Significance v4 (Emi Evans)



Hey... we kinda finished NieR: Automata. Kinda... Unlike most Yoko Taro joints, there is a significant amount of post-game content. Especially since they added some DLC post-release. Today we’re just going to go over all the shit that was unlocked upon completing Ending C. There’s like over a half dozen prompts about unlocked junk after the ending completes. So we’re gonna back up and take a look at that for a bit...





The most important addition is a robust Chapter Select option. If you were just a complete busta, you could right now reload the game to Chapter 17- Part 9 and select 9S at the final ending option. That would lead to Ending D and Ending E literally happens immediately after Endings C/D are seen. We’re obviously not doing that right now. That’s the end of the game/LP/everything.



The game is also nice enough to denote how many sidequests are available at any given point and who has to do ‘em. So if anything was missed it’s extremely easy to go back and complete it now. The Chapter Select is a little bit odd since a bunch of flags get reset using it. Like Emil needs to be activated as a merchant if any chapter is selected after the point we meet him in the main quest before he returns to actively becoming a shop in the field. Ditto with any incomplete sidequests from earlier in the game. They’re all reset to factory base.





On top of Chapter Select, we’ve got a new arena mode that is a REALLY weird thing to have in a video game released in 2017. Hey remember how codes and debug consoles and such went out of style with the rise of shitty achievements/trophies? That sucked. NieR: Automata feels the same. Messing with any of this disables saving the game because you’d completely bork your file. But hey!



There’s now an unlocked arena in which we can dick around with a Debug Menu at will using all three characters. So that’s an interesting little thing.



The debug menu comes in two flavors: Debug Flags and Enemy Spawning.



Debug Flags have a lot of dummied out options that would probably straight up crash the game. But there’s some weird dumb shit we can still do here.



The available options are:

• Player has Infinite HP
  
• Player has 1 HP
  
• Lock Player’s Level
  
• 9S Hacking Debug (everything is randomized hacking minigames)
  
• Enemies invincible
  
• Enemies AI disabled
  
• Enemies always get critical damage
  
• Enemies always take maximum stun damage
  
• One-shot enemies
  
• Enemies cannot be stunned
  
• Instant hacking
  

• Do not draw effects/enemies/player/everything
  
• Only draw weapons
  

• Wireframe mode
  

• Turok 2 mode (destroy draw distance)
  
• A whole mess of options that mess with the sound effect/music pitch and do the status effects/E-Drugs effects at will.
  

Debug Mode can also spawn enemies at will and we’re able to dictate their type, level and whatnot.





So if we want to see say 2B taking on a Level 99 2B that’s possible.



Or, ya know, just blowing off a bunch of steam wrecking 20 spawned Level 1 Advanced Stubbies to go ape-shit on...



Or seeing how difficult it would be to beat a dozen Goliath Bipeds at once for a challenge. It’s all possible in the debug menu. I kind of wish this was an option Platinum had done with games besides this one...



Beyond the debug menu, we’ve also unlocked a whole mess of new costume options for all three of our androids since we can now time travel to back when 2B (or A2) were alive.





Heavy Armor A is 2B’s Sexy Jin-Roh Panzer Corps outfit from the beginning of Route C.





Heavy Armor B is the helmetless version of the same costume if you’re a sexually repressed American that is getting hung up on 2B wearing a skirt all the time. This is the outfit for you and your Twitter brand.







Camouflage Goggles give 2B and 9S their creepy robot doll eyes for all to see during normal gameplay. You do you... I’m not a fan.





Finally, if you preferred long haired A2 from her brief cameos in Route A and B, that can be restored from a wig she’s borrowed from Raiden to return her halcyon days look. It clips through her model constantly and looks real bad. Like Dead or Alive 4 medusa hair bad. But hey... the option is there...





Perhaps the most important post-game addition is this one. The Strange Resistance Woman has now transformed into a very important merchant in the post-game.



The truth is, I’ve opened a little side business. Gotta be real hush-hush about it though. See, there are certain... accolades given to a select few who really give their all. You know what I’m getting at. They’re super tough to earn, which frustrates a lot of androids. So, with the help of some select volunteers, my company unlocks them. It’s a secret, but check it out if you like...
<Request unlocking you-know-what.>



So this lady just fucking sells all the achievements/trophies unlocks for NieR: Automata. 50,000 Gold for Bronze/Basic Achievements. 100,000 for Silver/Moderately difficult ones. 200,000 G for Gold/Hard to achieve junk. Yeah... Yoko Taro went completely the other way with thinking completionism is stupid bullshit and just gives you the option to skip it all at a really reasonable price! Like you can make enough money to get every achievement in maybe an hour of grinding. Tops. You’d have enough at this point if you never upgraded any weapons but your favorites.

The best joke in the game is actually hidden in this shop. There’s an achievement for possessing 100,000 G at once. It costs 100,000 G to purchase.



There is one final unlock given with Route C. It’s easy to miss this if you were to immediately go and do Ending D/E afterwards. But it’s a very important intel file. It’s the last correspondence we have with the best android in the game – Jackass. Behold!



Overview

While the machine lifeform network was
destroyed following the collapse of the
Tower, a great deal of previously unknown
information regarding machine lifeforms and
aliens was recovered from the wreckage.
As part of this analysis, we compiled
research and conjecture regarding both
the machine lifeform network and the
lifeform Codename N2—commonly known
as the Red Girls—that was thought to
have been commanding them.


- Machine lifeforms are weapons created
by the aliens. The only command given for
their behavior was to "defeat the enemy."
However, it appears that their capacity for
growth and evolution went too far, and
they eventually turned on and killed their
creators.

- At this point, machine lifeforms
recognized that the goal of "defeating the
enemy" actually REQUIRED an enemy. In
order to maintain this singular objective,
they reached the contradictory conclusion
that their current enemies—the androids—
could not be annihilated completely, lest
they no longer have an enemy to defeat.

- In order to resolve this inherent
contradiction, the machine lifeforms began
to intentionally cause deficiencies in their
network, diversifying the vectors of
evolution for all machines. This is the
cause behind some of the more "special"
machine lifeforms, such as Pascal and the
Forest King.

- Meanwhile, the deficient network began
repeating a process of self-repair while
incorporating surrounding information, until
it finally reached a fixed state as a new
form of network. Traces of information
regarding human memories from the
quantum server of the old model were
discovered, indicating that it had integrated
them during the final stages of its growth
process. Said server contained a record of
the discarded "Project Gestalt," as well as
information on the human who was the
first successful example of the Gestalt process.

- Having acquired information regarding
humanity, the network's structure changed
once more, becoming what might better be
called a meta network (or a "concept", to
borrow the words of the machines). This
led directly to the formation of the ego
we identify as N2.

...So then! To sum up: For hundreds of
years, we've been fighting a network of
machines with the ghost of humanity at its
core. We've been living in a stupid fucking
world where we fight an endless war that
we COULDN'T POSSIBLY LOSE, all for the
sake of some Council of Humanity on the
moon that doesn't even exist.

I don't know what the point is to all this,
but I swear I will kill every evolutionary
dead-end machine lifeform, as well as
every single asshole behind Project YoRHa.

I'm coming for all your heads. Fuck you.

Information Analysis Officer,
Jackass



What did you think I was fucking about with Jackass being the best android early on? Naw, son... Someone in-universe looked at a Yoko Taro plot and went “man FUCK THAT NOISE!” I’m entirely disappointed the DLC isn’t Jackass – Bomber Revengeance. But it is what it is... See you next time for the actual DLC of NieR: Automata and more as we wrap up this game.

Edit: In case you missed it, my son did a bunch of dumb fan art for this game: